Empire Conquest
Chapter 391 - 387: Full Outbreak

Chapter 391: Chapter 387: Full Outbreak

New Calendar Year 100, November 25th, eleven months since the outbreak of the great war, near Puhe Waterway to the south of East Capital Bay.

On the not-so-vast sea, dozens of battleships, arranged in orderly lines, were slowly sailing northward.

Leading them was the Battleship "Longxing".

Atop the towering masts hung two eye-catching flags.

The upper one was the Golden Dragon Flag, symbolizing the Imperial Family.

The lower one the Red Flame Burning Sea Flag, representing the Imperial Navy Commander.

Liu Changxun was on this battleship, currently standing outside on the open-air gallery of the Command Bridge.

However, it wasn’t the Emperor representing the Imperial Family to receive the surrender; Emperor Xia hadn’t earned that much prestige. It was the Emperor’s eldest son Wu Xianhao.

Such an arrangement held extraordinary implications.

By surrendering to the Emperor’s eldest son, Emperor Xia signified equality with the prince, effectively becoming a son of the Empire, right?

As a son of the Empire, obedience was naturally expected.

Moreover, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom was also part of the Confucian cultural sphere, built on esteemed Confucian values like "respect," "filial piety," "ritual," and "righteousness." With even Emperor Xia being a subordinate to the Liangxia Royal Family, it meant that millions of soldiers and citizens of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had to look up to the Liangxia Empire.

Perhaps, the impact of this cultural aspect wouldn’t be visible in the short term.

Decades later, once the generation that lived through the war had perished, and their culture and beliefs had been devastated, would the Saiyi still be able to rise?

The Saiyi people crawling like eunuchs without their manhood—what was the difference?

Looking back decades earlier, Chen Bingxun nearly castrated Saiyi.

After over a month of meticulous preparations, the surrender ceremony was just short of an east wind.

Reflecting on the events of the past month, Liu Changxun felt quite emotional.

On October 22nd, Emperor Xia and the Prime Minister announced their surrender, ordering the armies loyal to Emperor Xia to cease resistance and return to their barracks.

The next morning, the West Saiyi Regime and the Liangxia Empire announced their acceptance of the surrender of the puppet regime in East Imperial City.

Thus, the war against the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom was formally declared over.

However, the situation did not improve.

That very day, roughly four hours after the Liangxia Empire announced it accepted the surrender of the East Saiyi Regime, the Luosha Federation accused the Liangxia Empire of breaking their treaty and withdrew from the Consortium Group, immediately declaring war on both the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire.

The Liangxia Empire broke the treaty?

Indeed!

The secret agreement among the three parties included a clause that no party could accept an enemy’s surrender without the others’ consent.

This clause was created to prevent any contracting party from seeking a ceasefire unilaterally, which could lead to the dissolution of the Consortium Group.

Consequently, it became the Luosha Federation’s reason to defect.

Strictly speaking, this reason held no ground.

The argument was simple: the Luosha Federation had not yet entered the war and had not declared war on the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, so there was no issue of accepting the surrender of the East Saiyi Regime.

Thus, the Liangxia Empire’s acceptance of the East Saiyi Regime’s surrender had nothing to do with the Luosha Federation.

Moreover, it was an internal conflict within the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, initially handled by the West Saiyi Regime, with the Liangxia Empire merely participating as an ally.

In any case, the Luosha Federation was just fabricating a reason for its defection.

When one seeks to impose blame, no excuse is too flimsy, right?

That very night, the Luosha Army had already crossed the border and launched an attack on both the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire.

However, the main force of the Luosha was on the West Continent.

As previously predicted, the Luosha Federation concentrated its heavy forces on the west side and launched a sudden attack, catching the Tiaoman Empire by surprise.

On the Giant Continent side, the Luosha Army only symbolically crossed the border.

The purpose of the attack was not to annihilate the main forces of the Liangxia Army but to restrain them, preventing the Liangxia Army from organizing and launching a strategic offensive immediately.

After all, the focus was on the west.

Although the Tiaoman forces had entered a state of readiness a few hours earlier and the frontline troops had made some preparations, it hadn’t been very effective.

Before dawn on the eastern border of the Tiaoman Empire, several areas were breached by the Luosha Army.

One might say the Luosha Army still lacked some intensity, specifically the armored forces weren’t substantial enough to form a strategic breakthrough on the first night.

Just one night, yet it had a decisive significance.

In blitzkrieg warfare, the initial 24 hours, even the first 12 hours, are crucial because this is the time defensive side needs to mobilize its reserve forces.

By the next morning, the Tiaoman forces had deployed reserve teams in major directions, not only stabilizing the situation but also curbing the momentum of the Luosha offensive.

Indeed, before the Luosha Federation’s betrayal, the Tiaoman Empire had been strengthening its eastern defensive deployments.

Most importantly, they had moved three armored divisions, originally planned for sweeping southern areas of the West Continent, to the eastern region in advance.

In the subsequent days, these three armored divisions became the firefighters on the defensive line.

Still, the defensive preparations of the Tiaoman Empire were far from sufficient.

By November 17, the Luosha forces had advanced to approximately 30 kilometers from the capital of the Tiaoman Empire.

At that time, a forward scouting team even claimed to have seen the Victory Goddess sculpture on the Blandon City Gate.

However, most likely they were lying, because the Blandon City Gate is only about 20 meters high, visible only within a few thousand meters, and there are almost no clear days in the central plains of the West Continent during early winter.

Under the layered counterattacks of the Tiaoman forces, the Luosha Army was nearing exhaustion.

Here, the Liangxia Empire also plays a role.

On the last day of October, the Imperial Army launched a reprisal in the northwest.

Although the advance was challenging, mainly because the Luosha Army was well-prepared, having preemptively destroyed railway and road bridges, laid mines on the roads, and even contaminated water sources along the way with animal carcasses and excrement employing scorched earth tactics, it slowed the Imperial Army’s pace of advancement. However, as the main Luosha forces were deployed in the west, the east could not withstand the Imperial Army’s armored forces.

Afterwards, the Imperial Army advanced between 30 to 50 kilometers daily.

By November 17, they had moved westwards by more than 600 kilometers.

While this pace was not fast, the threat was significant enough.

The Imperial Army was not only advancing but also repairing railways, constructing several pontoon bridges, and establishing military camps every few kilometers.

This meant that driving the Imperial Army back was nearly impossible.

Furthermore, the Imperial Army had split into two directions, one heading towards Leaf Castle, and the other towards the lowland plains on the northern shore of the Broad Sea.

Indeed, they were targeting the Baku oil fields!

Losing Baku would undoubtedly lead to the Luosha Federation’s defeat!

By November 10, the Luosha Army had redirected at least 20 reserve infantry divisions that should have been dispatched to the Western Front to the northern shore of the Broad Sea and Leaf Castle.

This included two armored divisions and four mechanized infantry divisions.

Had these six divisions been deployed to the Western Front and participated in the offensive, the Luosha Army might have seized the capital of the Tiaoman Empire in November.

Of course, they would also have lost Leaf Castle by the end of the year, at the latest by next spring.

However, by late November, combat on the battlefields of the West Continent and the Giant Continent was successively halted.

Nothing strange, this year’s Ice Ocean cold current had arrived early.

By mid-November, the temperatures in the interior of the Giant Continent had already dropped to negative 20 degrees Celsius; only the ample daylight made it seem less cold.

Affected by the severe cold, it was impossible to organize an offensive, leaving the forces to shift from offense to defense.

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